


pendragon

by shr000m



Category: Original Work
Genre: Ableism is mentioned, Everyone Is Gay, Homophobia, Multi, Original work - Freeform, Trans Male Character, this is unfinished
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29072466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shr000m/pseuds/shr000m
Summary: these are scenes from my unfinished book, which is a retelling of arthurian legend. BUT merlin and arthur are the same age also gay asf***“You call yourself an Emrys?!” Arthur screamed.-Merlin stood stock still, his heavy breathing filling the room as he stared down at the body below him.-“The one who kills you shall take your title. I envy such a man.” Arthur scowls, and leaves the room.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> tw:  
> -implied emotional abuse  
> -arguments  
> -ableism  
> -dissociation 
> 
> this is chapter one of the first book!

Arthur first met Merlin in the woods.  
He had gotten lost earlier in the day. The night had come quickly, and he had found himself terrified, wandering the forest with his sword held out in front of him.  
Then he felt the metal of another sword pressing against his back, immediately stiffening and arching his back away from the sharp edge.  
“What’s your business here?” a hard voice asked.  
“I-I’m lost,” he stammered out, all his reflexes seeming to leave him.  
Then a gangly boy stumbled out of the trees and his mouth gaped at the sight of them. “Not again!” he scolded. “Let him go.”  
“He might be a threat!” the other voice said petulantly.  
“He’s the prince of Camelot!”  
Arthur felt the sword drop from his back and immediately stumbled away in terror, bringing his sword up in the defensive position he remembered from training. The gangly boy drew up his hands and a small ball of light illuminated the clearing. He flicked his fingers upwards and it floated over to Arthur, circling him like a predator.  
Arthur was too distracted by the boy’s eyes. They were glowing a striking gold while the ball of light floated. The boy blinked for a second.  
“‘Whatcha staring at?” he asked cockily, the corners of his lips upturned.  
“Nothing.” Arthur said quickly, his gaze turned downcast.  
“Aw, don’t look so miserable. For all you know, I just saved your life-“  
“I wouldn’t have killed him!” the other voice cut him off, and Arthur turned to look at her. Her eyes were golden like the boy’s, but they were duller, and they didn’t glow. She didn’t look to be doing magic either.  
“Do you have to get back to Camelot?” the boy asked.  
Arthur thought for a second. They might be bandits’ accomplices that planned to take him hostage like his father warned him about. The girl certainly looked terrifying.  
But the boy looked at him and smiled, carefree.  
“Well, do you know the way?” 

***

Merlin concentrated as he focused on the space between his hands. It wasn’t that hard, he told himself. It’s just like the other spell, just a brighter and bigger light.  
It flickered, forming in a splash of gold, and with a flick of his eyes and his hands, it floated into the air above them. He heard a laugh echo through the clearing they’d set up camp in.  
Arthur came running towards him. “Have you seen your ears?!” he laughed, sitting in front of him. Merlin looked into the pool of water in front of him. Wisps of golden air were floating out of his  
elven-looking ears.  
“Oh.” he said, at a loss for words. “That happens.”  
Arthur laughed, and Merlin felt his ears grow hot with embarrassment at the sound. 

“Why are you coming to Camelot?” Arthur asked, and Merlin looked over to Morgan, who was sharpening her sword on a rock, sitting sprawled on a log.  
“Morgan.”  
“Are-are you-“ Arthur stumbled over his words, feeling a dark blush creep up his neck, “-you know?”  
Merlin blinked and looked back at Arthur, who was doing some kind of strange hand gesture.  
“Am I what?”  
“You know??” Arthur stammered, and Merlin suddenly realized the meaning of the hand gesture.  
“Oh, g-god no!” he exclaimed, flushing all over his face. The light in front of him flickered.  
“I-I mean, it’s not like I hate h-her or anything but I just-it’s-I don’t-“ he slapped his hands, which had been waving round in emphasis, then immediately put them down at his sides, “-swing that way??”  
“O-oh!” Arthur exclaimed. “Sorry.” he added on quietly.  
“Oh, it’s okay. We’re going to Camelot so Morgan can become a knight!” Merlin grinned proudly, still sweating.  
“She looks like she’d be a good one.” Arthur replied.  
“You haven’t even seen her fight!”  
“She was terrifying!” Arthur said with a laugh.  
“Thanks.” Morgan said, striding over. Arthur  
flinched.  
“Bit jumpy for a Prince.” she said, hitting her wrists together, but somehow managing to look intimidating at the same time.  
“Uther’s a bitch, though.” Arthur replied quietly.  
Merlin made a face. “I figured.”  
“We should start heading back soon.” Morgan said loudly. Arthur smiled faintly, glad for her to have diverged the conversation.  
“Yeah. I guess we should.”

***

“I was so worried!” Uther said loudly, embracing Arthur, who looked uncomfortable.  
“I just got lost. Morgan and Merlin helped me.” he mumbled.  
Uther straightened up and looked at the two, scanning then with his eyes. 

Merlin was standing with his feet turned in. His dark hair was in a curly stack on top of his head, dark locks falling into his face, and his eyes were white-blue like the morning sky at that precise moment. He looked at his feet like he was scared of looking at the King. He’d probably come from a warlord’s kingdom, Uther thought offhandedly.  
They usually executed people just for looking directly at their rulers.  
He was wearing a ragged red shirt and black breeches, and a brown coat was round his shoulders. A belt with spacious pouches was around his waist. 

Morgan was standing looking down as well. Her dark hair was tangled down her back and her sword was in her belt. There was a small white scar on her tanned cheek, next to her eye. She made strange repetitive movements with her hands, twisting them and shaking them about. Her eyes darted from left to right, again again again. 

“What‘s wrong with that one? Is she a simpleton?” Uther asked aggressively.  
Merlin put a hand round Morgan’s waist protectively.

He knew she wasn’t ‘normal’.  
Morgan had described to him being trapped in a dark place with an empty void for a sky, and he knew when it happened. Morgan shook her hands around and had periods where she cried breathlessly and couldn’t calm down, or where she freaked out and screamed for the whole world to hear, unable to cope. She had talked about feeling like static, or compressed into a tight ball, just having to breathe.  
But he had known her his whole life. Merlin wasn’t about to leave because people called her a simpleton.

“There’s nothing wrong with her.” Merlin said, drawing Morgan closer. She still wouldn’t respond, staring down at the ground. They still wouldn’t look Uther in the face.  
“I’m not a warlord that will kill you if you look at me, boy.” Uther said quietly. 

Merlin looked up at him, but Morgan didn’t, and her eyes stayed glued to the ground, unfocused.

“Thank you for saving my son. You can have rooms for a night as a reward. Arthur, come with me.” he said briskly. 

The two Pendragons walked into a side room, but Merlin walked forward to the door, and he wordlessly pressed his ear to the door. Morgan followed him, blinking hard as she came back to reality.

“You better not run away from your duties like that again.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“Sorry isn’t good enough!”

There was a pause. Merlin could sense the tension.

“Learn how to navigate the forest. And make friends who aren’t simple.”  
“I’m sorry. I won’t. I swear.”  
“You better.”

Footsteps. Merlin dived behind a pillar, pulling Morgan with him, and watched as Uther stormed out of the room and into the corridor.

Merlin looked into the room. Arthur was sitting on the floor as if he’d leant against the wall and slid down. His knees were drawn up to his chest.  
He tiptoed in and sat next to him. 

“Hey.”  
Arthur just stared at the floor. He had his arms wrapped around his knees, and they were tensed.  
“I’m sorry about Uther.”  
Nothing.  
“Is he always like this?”  
“No.” Arthur replied. His voice was quiet, but there was a tint of anger in it.  
“It’ll get better one day.”  
“Shut up.”  
“Arthur?” Merlin asked quietly.  
“Shut up!” Arthur burst out as he stood up. “You don’t get to tell me it’ll get better!”  
Merlin stood up to face him. “I-“  
“You don’t get to come in here, with your perfect life, and your perfect magic, and tell me it’ll get better!”  
“Arthur, it-“  
“Shut the fuck up!” Arthur shouted, venom in his voice.  
He backed slowly out of the room, stumbling.  
“I didn’t-“  
“You’re not a prince.” Arthur said slowly. “You don’t know anything about me.”  
Merlin reached out his hand in an effort to persuade the teenager, but Arthur backed another step.  
“Stay the fuck away from me.” and he bolted.

Merlin didn’t go after him.  
He dropped to the floor and checked on Morgan, who was in her dark place again.  
Sometimes he felt like finding his own dark place to immerse himself in.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just some footnotes about the story before we continue!   
> -merlin is a trans guy  
> -morgan is autistic and has adhd (i am so sorry if i did a bad job of representing this, if anyone had any problems please comment)

this chapter is my rough notes about the storyline.

-merlin and morgan are best bros and travel to camelot together so morgan can become a knight because sexism doesn’t exist in my fantasy world  
-they meet guinevere and arthur  
-arthur and merlin have CHEMISTRY  
-guinevere and morgan have CHEMISTRY  
-fluff  
-morgan becomes knight  
-more fluff  
-everything is perfect  
-morgause meet morgan, you better not ruin her life ok?  
-morgause manipulates morgan by casting a spell to make her mind vulnerable iMPERIO  
-god fucking dammit morgause   
-morgause causes a big scene with her, morgan and uther that reveals uther is her father **gAASPP**  
-morgan runs away with morgause, only uther knows that she went unwillingly because fuck you  
-uther lies to arthur and tells him that morgan is dead because he’s a ho  
-arthur doesn’t believe him and goes out to search for morgan AS YOU SHOULD  
-arthur sees morgan and confronts uther   
-uther forbids him from going after her   
-arthur goes anyway BECAUSE FUCK YOU  
-morgause starts to control morgan again and gets her to go back to camelot with arthur oh noe   
-morgause controls both morgan and arthur now dUN DUN DUNNNN  
-big battle happens when merlin realizes that arthur is being controlled and goes to confront morgan  
-morgause shows up and kills uther AS YOU SHOULD MOTHERFUCKER  
-merlin breaks spell because he is god or at least has a mild god complex i mean gary sue anyone  
-actually i’m wrong he’s probably really insecure all my characters are insecure  
-i’m projecting myself onto my characters aren’t i   
-WELL ANYWAY arthur is big guilt cuz morgan and morgause got away   
-arthur is big king now  
-arthur is also underage   
-this means that his uncle emrys ambrosious aurelius - emrys is a title - becomes regent to the throne   
-he makes gæ marriage illegal and is basically just a glorified donald trump   
-hate crimes become more common  
-homophobia and transphobia becomes normalised, with most of the community going back into the closet  
-merlin is hate crimed   
-arthur decides we need revolution   
END OF BOOK 1  
-merlin and arthur finally fuck  
-angst angst angst  
-arthur gathers commoners and trains them so they can eventually overthrow ambrosious   
-arthur is scared that morgan isn’t being controlled  
-arthur is wrong   
-in a meeting they decide that getting morgan back is a priority  
-morgan and guinevere have an encounter and guinevere barely gets away with her life  
-arthur and guinevere argue because guinevere thinks morgan is a lost cause  
-morvere angst  
-the enchantment on morgan is failing  
-morgan escapes   
-he takes morgan to the meeting where they debate what to do   
-one of the members is talented at magic and performs a ceremony on morgan  
-this ceremony rids morgan of all magical influences by other people   
-when she wakes up she is overpowered bc morgause and uther are bitches   
-ambrosious hits arthur and merlin accidentally kills him   
-constans ii takes over   
-they escape to the forest where they plan an attack  
-they try to take the citadel  
-the fight goes bad, but constans is dead   
-merlin fakes his death  
-arthur is big sad   
-a month goes by without merlin   
-morgan comes out as nonbinary   
-guinevere is bi for women and people outside the   
gender binary


End file.
